Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 5
>Chapter Title: Haggling (3)
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The Second Young Master, Mok Eun-pyeong, harbored great ambitions.
From a young age, not only had he mastered the swordsmanship of Timber Sword Manor, but he had also absorbed the fist techniques from his mother, Madam Jang's maternal family, House Hoebuk-jang. His talent in martial arts was quite exceptional.
Thus, he was convinced that he would naturally become the next Clan Head of Timber Sword Manor.
The eldest son, Mok Young-ho, was greedy and indulgent in wine and women, lacking the qualities to be a successor. Mok Eun-pyeong believed the succession would undoubtedly fall to him.
But he was mistaken.
‘Mok Yu-cheon.’
The Clan Head's favor went to the youngest.
And it was well-deserved. At just fourteen, Mok Yu-cheon had mastered all of Timber Sword Manor's martial arts and reached the realm of a first-rate expert, possessing innate martial talent.
As Mok Yu-cheon began to stand out, the Clan Head kept postponing the decision on succession.
Mok Eun-pyeong was certain it was because the Clan Head's heart leaned toward the boy.
‘I can’t let this opportunity slip away.’
He saw the Clan Head's precarious life as his chance.
Fortunately, Mok Yu-cheon, born of a lowly concubine, had no support around him.
Unless the Clan Head personally declared him successor, the boy couldn't ascend to Clan Head relying solely on his own strength.
Thus, the key was to eliminate the other candidates.
‘If it’s just between them, none can match me.’
Both were utter incompetents.
The eldest, Mok Young-ho, knew only indulgence in wine and women, while the third, Mok Kyung-un, was a powerless coward.
However, behind Mok Young-ho stood Great Madam Seok.
Coming from the influential Golden Flower House Seok, she wielded considerable power.
Moreover, there were still many old vassals who championed primogeniture.
‘Mok Kyung-un...’
Among his brothers, the one whose face resembled a pretty boy from the pleasure quarters was inferior in every way—except lately, he had begun coveting the succession.
Great Madam dismissed him as laughable and paid him no mind, but Mok Eun-pyeong was different.
‘Gam Escort, was it?’
The boy had one overly fitting bodyguard.
Called Gam Escort, the man had once impressed the Clan Head enough to request him as a personal guard upon first sight—clearly no ordinary martial artist.
Intrigued, Mok Eun-pyeong had investigated and uncovered some rather interesting—no, cautionary—facts.
This made him wary of underestimating the third son, Mok Kyung-un.
Yet, an unexpected event unfolded.
Was heaven aiding him?
“You wish to become my man?”
Mok Eun-pyeong barely calmed his twitching lips.
Kneeling on one knee before him was Gam Escort, Mok Kyung-un’s bodyguard warrior.
The man he had coveted so much had come of his own accord.
At a most opportune moment.
“Please accept me, Young Master.”
Stroking his chin, Mok Eun-pyeong spoke as he regarded Gam Escort.
“You ask me to take you in... Quite tempting.”
Gam Escort inwardly thought the start was promising.
He had planned to observe the Clan Head's condition and the surrounding dynamics before deciding, but ultimately chose the Second Young Master, Mok Eun-pyeong.
The eldest, Mok Young-ho, was too swayed by Great Madam, while the youngest, Mok Yu-cheon, had nothing beyond his personal martial prowess.
‘Cunning, but easier to handle this way.’
As a stopgap for the real Mok Kyung-un's death, he chose Mok Eun-pyeong.
Though cunning and suspicious, Mok Eun-pyeong's greed for talent assured Gam Escort he would be accepted.
However,
“The timing is exquisitely suspicious.”
“Pardon?”
“You know I hold Gam Escort in high regard. But asking to join right before the succession struggle arouses suspicion.”
‘As expected.’
Gam Escort nodded slightly at Mok Eun-pyeong's words.
He had anticipated the naturally skeptical man wouldn't trust him immediately.
“I understand. But a reason has arisen why I can no longer serve Young Master Mok Kyung-un.”
“A reason you can’t serve Mok Kyung-un?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“I cannot reveal it just yet.”
Mok Eun-pyeong snorted.
What use was a reason you refused to disclose?
Absurd, he thought—until Gam Escort smiled faintly.
“It’s one of Young Master Mok Kyung-un’s weaknesses, so I hesitate to speak now. Accept me, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Ha. Are you bargaining with me?”
“Please understand my position.”
“Understand... Fine, let’s say this is for later. Can you share another weakness now?”
“Of course.”
“What is it?”
“Young Master Mok Kyung-un cannot practice martial arts at present.”
“What?”
Mok Eun-pyeong’s eyebrow twitched with interest.
“Is that true?”
“Not a word of lie.”
“Has he fallen into qi deviation?”
“...Something like that.”
In truth, being a fake, he hadn’t learned martial arts to begin with.
But revealing that could publicize the fake Mok Kyung-un’s death, so he glossed over it vaguely.
“Ha!”
Mok Eun-pyeong’s face lit up at Gam Escort’s words.
Timber Sword Manor was a martial clan.
A leader unable to use martial arts had lost all qualification.
“So the boy has lost his martial arts.”
He had no talent to begin with, but now couldn’t use them at all—that changed everything.
He no longer qualified for succession.
To the jubilant Mok Eun-pyeong, Gam Escort said,
“Accept me, and I’ll provide even more useful information.”
Pretending to ponder, Mok Eun-pyeong grinned.
“I wondered if Gam Escort aimed to play Huang Gai at Red Cliffs.”
A desperate stratagem.
In the Battle of Red Cliffs, Wu’s Huang Gai feigned torture to defect falsely to Cao Cao of Wei.
Mok Eun-pyeong had long suspected Gam Escort—whom Mok Kyung-un knew he coveted—might be a spy.
Gam Escort chuckled.
“Embarrassing to say of my former master, but Young Master Mok Kyung-un lacks the vessel even for such a scheme.”
“Hahaha. True enough.”
“Then will you accept me?”
“Of course. How could I let such talent slip?”
Gam Escort bowed in thanks.
“Thank you for accepting me.”
“No need. I’m grateful you made the right choice for Timber Sword Manor. But right after joining, I hate to ask a favor—could you handle one task?”
Gam Escort pounded his chest heartily.
“Command me as you will.”
He needed to impress Mok Eun-pyeong for now.
But unexpected words came from his mouth.
“As a former assassin, I figured Gam Escort could handle this adequately.”
‘!?’
Gam Escort’s expression hardened.
He hadn’t expected Mok Eun-pyeong to have investigated his past.
He knew the man was cunning but had underestimated him as green—his mistake.
* * *
Just past midnight.
Everyone slept, even the bodyguards at the pharmacy entrance dozing off.
-Creak!
‘Ho.’
Opening the drawer labeled O-yang revealed a hidden entrance.
As a secret space, it opened quietly, as feared.
Mok Kyung-un entered with a lantern.
-Rustle!
He descended the underground stairs silently.
The stairs went deeper than expected.
‘Deep.’
Over two floors down, it felt suspicious.
For hiding a clan seal and manual, it was excessively deep.
Around three floors down, a chamber the size of a third of the pharmacy appeared.
‘Ah!’
Four stone doors marked its entrances.
Above them were engraved Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding.
[Pharmacy........Underground.......Chamber.......Ding Stone.........Door.......Inside..........]
Mok Kyung-un recalled the Clan Head’s words.
Among the four passages, it was inside the Ding stone door—no need to check others.
He approached the Ding stone door.
It opened to a straight cave passage.
‘About twenty steps?’
As he stepped forward, Mok Kyung-un halted just before placing his foot down.
He had spotted something on the cave ceiling.
‘What’s that?’
Jagged ceiling holes, finger-width for two or three, spaced at intervals along the passage inward.
Puzzled, Mok Kyung-un scanned around.
Fist-sized stones lay in one corner of the chamber.
‘Better safe.’
He picked one up, tapped it on his palm, then tossed it into the passage.
-Clack!
Before the pebble rolled,
-Whoosh!
Sharp spear-like blades shot from floor sides.
Blind entry would have pierced legs or thighs.
Mok Kyung-un smirked.
‘Interesting.’
Traps to prevent theft of the seal and manual?
Seemed excessive.
Did they really hold the seal and manual?
Gazing inward, he clenched and unclenched his fists.
‘I’ll know when I see.’
Time to enter.
Biting the lantern handle, he leaped up without hesitation, inserting three fingers into a ceiling hole.
-Grip!
A normal person might struggle with two, but not Mok Kyung-un.
-Swish! Grip!
He reached forward, inserting index and middle fingers into the next hole.
Two steps along the ceiling.
‘As I thought.’
Avoid the floor; use ceiling holes.
Traps wouldn’t trigger.
Confident, Mok Kyung-un advanced relentlessly, fingers gripping holes.
-Grip! Grip! Grip!
After twenty paces, the passage ended in a seven-pyeong room.
Entering, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes gleamed.
‘What’s this?’
Sacks lined the walls, traces everywhere.
‘Footprints?’
Deep floor impressions bore countless prints; walls showed impact cracks.
He checked a sack.
Small pellets inside. Sniffing, Mok Kyung-un recognized them.
‘Grain Substitute Pills?’
Grain Substitute Pills.
Made from pine pollen and grains for Daoist ascetics in closed-door training.
They supplemented minimal sustenance; certain mixes expelled bodily waste.
With vast herb knowledge, Mok Kyung-un had snacked on Grandfather’s version.
‘Why sacks of Grain Substitute Pills here?’
For prolonged stays.
Solo martial training perhaps?
Fiddling with the pills, he looked elsewhere.
A shelf against one wall held wooden boxes.
‘That?’
Approaching, he opened an eye-catching box.
Inside, a book:
[Timber Forming Sword Art]
‘This the manual?’
He pulled it out, flipping through.
Detailed sword forms and techniques.
No martial training, but he knew it was swordsmanship.
‘Probably.’
Unsure if Great Madam’s target.
Didn’t even know Timber Sword Manor’s martial arts.
He opened another box.
-Click!
[Timber Transforming Heart Method]
Flipping quickly, he nodded.
Paired with the sword art: detailed breathing, qi circulation for inner power.
‘Take this too.’
He opened the rest.
No more martial texts, but some curiosities.
Still no clan seal.
‘Only this box left.’
Nothing else around.
He lifted the floor-level box.
Unlike others, its lid bore a torn paper with a pattern.
Likely a “do not open” marker.
Casually, he opened it.
Expecting the clan seal,
‘!?’
Mok Kyung-un tilted his head.
No seal. Instead, a foul-smelling old book wrapped in red prayer beads.
The cover:
‘Human skin?’
Undeniably flesh-bound.
A normal person would recoil, but Mok Kyung-un looked intrigued.
‘What could this be.’
As he reached,
-Swish!
Smoke-like, something phased through the ceiling.
The Demon Monk.
Like guard Go Chan above, on watch.
Its appearance meant someone approached the pharmacy.
-..........
The Demon Monk started to speak.
But seeing the box’s contents, it,
-!!!!!
Shuddered violently,
-Thud!
Prostrated flat, hands raised in awe, kowtowing frantically.
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